Things I Remember – TGIF on ABC

It was great. The bell would ring at 3 o’clock on Friday afternoon and I would run out to my mom’s car. I would rush through dinner and homework so I could play for a few minutes before. Then at 7:58 my family would settle in with our soft-drinks and snacks for the best two hours of T.V. ever! That’s right, TGIF. And I’m talking about the original TGIF. You remember: Perfect Strangers, Full House, Mr. Belvedere, and Just the Ten of Us. Sure every couple of years the line up would change a bit, Just the Ten of Us left, Fresh Prince entered. It happened, it was hard but all-in-all we were better because of it. Each week a star from one of the show’s would ‘host’ and talk about the episodes and whisk you through the evening with funny quotes and quirky little antidotes. Some hosts would refer to the evening as “Thank God it’s funny”, man that is gold. The anticipation to see who was hosting was a big decision in my social circle. Bigger than the SNL host I can tell you that.

Now that was the hey-day of family-friendly situation comedies, unfortunately that day is long past. Now we have to suffer through played out plot lines, spin-offs and ‘reality tv’ which couldn’t be any further away from how I perceive reality. It is ashame that my daughter will not get to experience that excitement. Maybe I’m sad that I won’t get to experience her experiencing it.

Things I Remember – Cheap Toys

There are certain things in life that you just don’t see changing to such a dramatic extreme that you would actually be taken aback by them. For instance, the price of a kid’s jump rope. As a child I remember going to the ‘cheap and random’ toy isle at the supermarket. You know what I’m talking about, the isle that holds the bubbles, the paddle-and-ball game, jacks, bouncy balls, jump robes etc. All the items are always jumbled, messed up and out of place. No one really cares about this certain part of the store, no one. We rarely, if ever, bought a toy from that isle but it was always interesting to see what was there. I still remember how cheap all those toys were, measured in cents. Jump ropes were like $0.97, hoola-hoops $1.50, jacks $.50. They were giving bouncy-balls away.

I bring this up because just last week I was rolling my 18-month old through the ‘cheap and random’ toy isle when I started to notice the prices. Jump-robes were going for $3.50. But no wonder, you couldn’t buy just a plain rope. They were all Dora or Spongebob with big ornate handles and beads. Nowhere could you find a rope like I used, two plain red handles with a piece of yellow string between them. I began to investigate more. Hula-hoops, which are now called Cosmic Hoops or Wavy Hoops were $6. $6!! They all had lights or made noises, no simple plastic rings.

The more I looked the more I was shocked. My daughter must have thought I was insane with all the cursing and gnashing of teeth.  Why does life have to get like that. Why can’t simple things, like a jump-rope, just stay simple.